


Squeeze My Hand if You Can Hear Me

by Ghostbunne



Series: Marble Hornets One Shots [3]
Category: Marble Hornets
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Coma, Comatose Jay, Confessions, Fix-It, Gun Violence, He Feels Like Everything is His Fault, He Loves Jay, Hospitalization, Hospitals, Jam, Love Confessions, M/M, Mutual Pining, Not Canon Compliant, One Shot, Oneshot Prompts Challenge, Pining, Tim Visits Jay in the Hospital Every Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-15
Updated: 2020-06-15
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:55:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24739588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghostbunne/pseuds/Ghostbunne
Summary: “Jaybird, please, squeeze my hand if you can hear me.” He said with the desperation of a man looking at everything he had left to lose. He waited for a moment, his hand still tightly clasped around Jay’s limp one. He sighed. The same response, or more accurately lack thereof, of the previous nights.
Relationships: Jay Merrick/Timothy "Tim" Wright
Series: Marble Hornets One Shots [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1761373
Comments: 2
Kudos: 43





	Squeeze My Hand if You Can Hear Me

Tim hated hospitals, he had hated them since he was forced into one as a kid for most of his childhood and teen years. He hated being in them or near them and did what he could to avoid them like the devil. None of that was on Tim’s mind as he sat in an uncomfortable metal and vinyl chair next to a hospital bed in which Jay Merrick laid. He was completely comatose, he had been for about two weeks now. It was Tim’s fault, at least that was what he kept telling himself, that Jay was in this state. He was the one who instead of waiting and helping Jay through his anger and delirium decided to leave him zip-tied and vulnerable on the floor of his house whilst he pursued Alex at Benedict Hall. If he had stayed behind if they had worked together towards their goal of taking down Alex, then Jay wouldn’t have been shot, he wouldn’t have been teleported around as he slowly bled out, he wouldn’t have fallen and suffered some sort of head injury that left him the way he was now. Tim thanked his lucky stars that when he found Jay back in his house he hadn’t had died. He had dropped his pursuit of the hooded man to take Jay to the hospital and was even luckier not to randomly get teleported somewhere in the process. They had managed to save him but of course, they can’t just magically wake someone up from a coma. So now Tim came back to the hospital every day after the part-time job he had managed to pick up nearby, and he would sit until visiting hours came to an end. He didn’t know why seeing as the hospital would call him when Jay eventually woke up. Maybe he wanted to be there right away, be able to apologize for breaking the promise of no more secrets and for leaving him behind. Maybe he was just scared that if he didn’t check on him every day something horrible would happen. Maybe he wanted to make sure Jay knew how much he loved him, how much he regretted their falling out, how much he wanted to just tell him how he felt, how he had felt for a long time. As the time to leave approached faster Tim broke his silence with a small bout of coughs, one he knew was induced more from his smoking habit than anything. He reached his hand out and put it in Jay’s limp one, holding it tight, and like he did every night he asked for one thing.

“Jaybird, please, squeeze my hand if you can hear me.” He said with the desperation of a man looking at everything he had left to lose. He waited for a moment, his hand still tightly clasped around Jay’s limp one. He sighed. The same response, or more accurately lack thereof, of the previous nights, but before he could pull his hand away he felt Jay’s fingers weakly attempt to curl around and clasp his own. Tim became flustered as he tried to figure out what to do, unsure if he should pull away from his hand and get a doctor or stay and talk and see if he would wake up. Tim chose the latter. “Jay, it’s me, Tim. You’re in the hospital. Something happened, I can explain everything if you just wake up… please.”

Jay’s hand curled tighter around his, but nothing else changed. Tim sat there, glancing at the clock as it ticked closer to his time to leave. 

“Jay I’m sorry, I’m sorry about what happened, about keeping secrets. We need to be working together through this, we can’t win if we don’t work together. Please wake up, Jay I miss having someone around, I miss having you around.” He felt himself begin to cry as the stress from the past two weeks compacted down onto him alongside his desperation. “Please, Jay. You’re one of my only friends right now, even if we fell out a bit it was my fault and we can put it back together. Jay I-”

“Sir, visiting hours are ending now.” A nurse interrupted, popping his head through the door.  
“I… I understand.” He stood up, letting go of Jay’s hand. It stayed in a clasped position for a moment before falling limply to the bed again. He faced Jay. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Get better soon, please.”

Tim began to walk away whilst the nurse continued to stand in the doorway, likely to make sure he was actually leaving. He was almost across the room when he heard it.

“Wait. Don’t… Don’t go.” Jay’s voice called out, dry and raspy from lack of use. Tim froze midstride, quickly turning around. Jay’s eyelids fluttered open and shut, and the hand Tim had held grasped at the air. “Please, don’t leave… it’s too quiet when you’re gone. Please hear me just this once.”

Tim wasn’t sure if he wanted to laugh or cry, but he quickly made his way back to the edge of Jay’s bed. His eyes continued to flutter, and Tim assumed he couldn’t see anything.

“Jay I hear you,” Tim said softly. He saw the nurse leave out of the corner of his eye, likely going to get a doctor. “I can hear you, keep talking if you can.”

“Tim? Tim I- I’m so sorry.” Jay responded. Tim fit his hand inside of Jay’s once more. “I’m sorry, I should’ve listened, I understand why- why you didn’t show me the tape. I tried to call you but I-”  
Jay grew silent for a moment, and Tim took it as an opportunity to speak.

“If it’s too hard to talk then don’t, Jay. Don’t apologize, don’t anything. We can do that later when you’re better. I don’t want to see you get hurt any more than you already are. Jay, I care about you, and if we are apologizing I need to apologize too, I-”

“You care about me?” Jay said, and the question dumbstruck Tim. Did Jay… not realize they were friends? That Tim wanted to make sure Jay wasn’t getting hurt because of all of this, because of the monster that followed him and infected everyone around him? All of this was Tim’s fault, he had never wanted his friends to get hurt, he had never wanted to see the man he loved get hurt.

“I- Of course I care about you Jay!” Tim didn’t notice the fluttering of Jay’s eyes had stopped and didn’t notice him staring up at him. “Jay you’re my only friend right now, everyone else is either dead, hates my guts and wants me dead, or I have no idea what they’re doing! It’s not even just that you’re my friend, Jay, I- I love you. I’ve loved you for a while.”

Tim stared down at his hands, the last part uttered softly. He assumed Jay hadn’t heard it until a hand brushed the side of his face. He looked up at Jay who now stared at him from where he lay. 

“I love you too,” Jay responded with a small smile, and for once Tim felt like something in his messy life might work out.


End file.
